Tabs

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Posting the recipe for a kerala-style potato stew. This stew is usually served with appam and it is also served as an item on the sadhya ela (authentic kerala lunch) . I make my stew in a pressure cooker and I feel it is the easiest way to go about, without consuming much time. Very easy recipe.

Ingredients: ( serves 4)

Potatoes - 4 medium (each cut into 6 pieces)

Onions - 2 (sliced)

Ginger - 2 tbspns (chopped)

Green chilies - 3 (slit)

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Pepper corns - 1 tspn

Coconut milk - 200 ml

Water - 2 cups

Coconut oil - 1 tspn (optional)

Salt - to taste

Directions:

In the pressure cooker, take 100 ml of coconut milk and add the water

Add the potatoes, onions, ginger, chilies, pepper corns and salt

Cook for 3 whistles and turn off the heat.

When the pressure has released from the cooker, open it and add the
remaining coconut milk, curry leaves and coconut oil and simmer for 5
mins.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

This has been in my draft for almost a year now. It is a trifle pudding recipe. I made this when my cousins came over for a meal. Actually, I had made a plain vanilla cake at home then.( Click here for plain cake recipe) But, I did not want to serve the same boring thing. So, I thought a trifle pudding would be more fun for a change.

The layers in the pudding were vanilla cake topped with a banana custard. Then came a layer of cranberry jelly. Then some slightly sweetened whipped vanilla cream and then some chocolate-cream-cookie crumbs. These layers were repeated.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Green gram
sprouts (Moong sprouts) are super yum and easy to make at home. Wash and soak a
cup of green gram in water overnight. Next morning, discard excess water
and tie the gram up in a wet cloth for about 12-16 hours. Your green gram
sprouts are ready.

The dressing was a simple mix of lime juice, salt and powdered cumin. The ruby-like pomegranate seeds added sweetness. This salad is a power house of protein and anti-oxidants.

Monday, August 6, 2012

The best thing of being or living in India is that, I can go home whenever I feel like it and our family can visit us often too. That is a real blessing.

My sister and nephew visited us and I made this cake for them.

It was a nice pistachio cake which was infused with cardamom. A handsome
quantity of pistachios were ground and added to the cake. Orange zest
rendered that zing . The orange flavor came through so well. Cardamom powder does the job of giving a good aroma to the cake. So there is no need for vanilla in this recipe.

What I loved most about the cake was that when I cut a slice, the orange
and green specs from the zest and the pistachio were vividly visible,
which made it look so beautiful. This cake was a smash hit at home. It
lasted 2 days and not a crumb was left.

Ingredients:

Pistachios -1-1/2 cups(unsalted, shelled and toasted )

All-purpose flour - 1-1/2 cups

Baking powder - 2-1/2 tspns

Cardamom powder - 1 tspn

Salt - 1/4 tspn

Whole milk - 1 cup

Unsalted butter - 1-1/2 sticks (at room-temperature)

Sugar - 1-1/2 cups

Eggs - 4 large or 5 small

Grated orange zest - 2 tspns

Method:

Arrange oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to
350°F or 180°C. Line a 9-inch-diameter round cake pan withparchment paper.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt and sieve 3 times or mix well.

Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Using food processor, pulse pistachios until
ground, about 40 seconds. (Do not over process it to a fine powder ).

Add the ground pistachio to the flour mixture and mix well.

In large bowl using electric mixer at moderate speed,
beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Reduce
speed to low and flour mixture and milk alternately in 3 batches,
beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating after each
addition just until combined.

Add orange zest and mix until
just combined.

Spread batter evenly in pan and bake for 35 mins, until wooden skewer
inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool the cake in the
pan for about 10 minutes, unmold cake and let cool on a rack.